There'll be Butterflies
by WildeCard
Summary: A series of  predomenantly  unrelated short stories. The vast  and I mean vast  majority will be Morgana centric, but pairings and character support will vary, as will the position along the timeline in which they occur.Femslash warning in some stories.
1. Childhood

When they were children Arthur was always the strong one, even if he wasn't always the smart one. Morgana loves this about him, even now in a castle far from Camelot, she takes refuge in the memories of his strength. But his muscle, his speed and his skill with the sword all pale when compared to the strength of his heart, Arthur has always been able to see what is right, even when it threatens to shatter his heart.

Morgana loved this as a child because it allowed her to be weak sometimes. It allowed her heart to break at the injustice of an execution or at the plight of the people knowing, all the while, that Arthur's heart was strong enough to pick them both up and then do what must be done.

There was time when she loved him like a brother and thought of him as a king. Morgana wonders when she lost that.


	2. Corruption

They didn't love her as they used to do, and at the end of the day Morgana Le Fay was left with nothing but the knowledge that it could have been different.

If Merlin had told her from the beginning that she wasn't alone, that he understood, that there was a better way it might have been different. He could have told her all manner of things and yet he left her stranded.

She would have saved them, if she could, so long ago, back when she never wanted to be queen and pain not hatred burned at every mindless execution. But Morgana is what they made her, Uther with his hatred, Merlin with his lies, and the others with the many wrongs they committed against magic, against her heart. And what they made is a monster, a villainous being that has come to represent everything Uther feared, and everything they hate. Morgana hates it too, even as Morgause whispers soothing condolences into her ear, because she's better than this, in every sense of the word. And deep inside the child Morgana is crying because she loves them still.


	3. Beauty

She's evil, and wicked, and villainous and every other synonym to that effect, both in his eyes and in the eyes of the people. But Merlin, for all the distance in between them, still understands her better than anyone in the world, even Morgause. Because Merlin knows her heart, broken and twisted and damaged beyond repair, and he understands her suffering and you cannot hate that which you understand so well, only pity it and lament what could have been.

And as he stares across the battlefield, his memory filled with images of Arthur and Gwen, Merlin thinks that Morgana Le Fay is still the most beautiful girl in the world.


	4. Fairy

In the folklore of the Old Religion fairies were tricksters, deceptive and cruel with the cunning to achieve their ends. They were beautiful too, physically stunning, and not just to the mortal eye, with features that inspired lust and envy in equal measures.

These were the stories of Morgana's youth, back when she went by a different surname and her heart wasn't filled with pain and her fingertips were pale and magic-less.

"Everything must have a name," her tutor had once told her "how else can you know what it is?" And looking back on what she has done, Morgana thinks "Le Fay" has never been more fitting.


	5. Unfortunate

Merlin is, in relative terms, something of a god among men. He's the most powerful wizard ever to walk the Earth, loved by the people of Camelot and advisor to the most famous King the aforementioned people will ever have. Men, despite his oddly carved features, are desperate to be him, women tend to fall at his feet and, had he been more like Arthur was in his youth, they would have fallen with equal willingness into his bed.

But women, Merlin thinks, are also the cause of his suffering and, as he stares into the immortally beautiful face of the Lady Morgana, images of Nimueh, Morgause and Sophia flickering behind his eyelids, he wishes that, just once, he didn't always have to kill the really beautiful women.


	6. Freedom

Much like magic, the blood of the aristocracy also has its limitations. However these are not limitations confined to anti-magic Kingdoms such as Camelot, they are global, and Morgana Le Fay sometimes hates the fact that she was cursed with both.

The sorceress in her blood calls for freedom with such alacrity that it overrules all other needs (love, air, water). But Morgana was also raised as royalty, and deep down her conflicted heart knows she cannot be both.


	7. Theatrics

Sometimes Morgana feels she is, above all else, an actress. She's fast running out of fingers for the number of roles people are expecting her to play; Uther's beauty, , Merlin's chain, Gwen's mistress, Mordred's cohort and Morgauses puppet. Then there are the roles that are fading from her repertoire; Uther's ward, Arthur's conscience and Gwen and Merlin's friend (she misses the latter two more than she'd ever thought possible.

Finally there are the roles prophecy demands of her; the great sorceress, Merlin's rival, Athur's adversary and breaker of over a thousand hearts (her own lost somewhere in that unknown number).

But, as is often the case with great actresses, it is the simple roles that are so often overlooked. Most of all she regrets that she never got to play Morgana, and spend one more day in the sun.


End file.
